Nashville Electric Service leaders sat before the Winter Storm Commission on Thursday to answer for the utility’s handling of January’s deadly ice storm, a response that left some customers without power for nearly two weeks in freezing temperatures.
The three-hour hearing covered a wide range of failures, from communication breakdowns to coordination problems and questions about long-term infrastructure upgrades.
A significant portion of the session focused on how NES kept customers informed during the outage. Commission members raised concerns about inconsistent messaging, including reports of customers receiving texts saying their power had been restored when it had not. Residents also expressed frustration over what they described as a lack of coordination between NES and other agencies during the crisis.
Commissioners also pressed NES on why crews from other cities were slow to arrive and help. NES leaders responded that the storm’s type and path shifted from initial forecasts and pointed to their mutual aid agreements with other utilities as part of the explanation.
On the infrastructure side, the commission asked about tree trimming practices, the legal authority to perform work on private property, and whether burying power lines underground could be a realistic long-term solution. NES said it has launched a system-wide undergrounding study and plans to test different burial methods this summer across four neighborhoods chosen based on outage history, landscape, and community size. Commissioners noted, though, that underground lines in a neighborhood can still go dark if something fails higher up on the transmission grid.
The hearing also touched on reports that certain individuals, including Senator Marsha Blackburn, had reached out to NES for personal status updates during the outage. NES leaders said no crews were directed to prioritize any specific homes.
NES CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin said the utility is still waiting on a final independent investigation report, expected within the next two weeks. She noted that changes already made during spring storms appear to be producing better results.
The Winter Storm Commission will now compile everything gathered over the past several months into an initial factual report before delivering recommendations to the mayor by the end of summer on how the city can better handle major storm responses going forward.